by LAURA KEIL
Despite heavy smoke in the Robson Valley, the area has luckily avoided any new wildfires in the past couple weeks.
As of Monday, crews had responded to over 1000 fires in the province since April. Those fires had burned more than 1.2 million hectares – 10 times the area burned during the 2016 season.
The closest fire to the Robson Valley is the Isaac Lake fire which has burned more than 587ha.
The largest fire in the province is the “Plateau Fire near the Chilcotin Plateau, 60km west of Quesnel and 60km northwest of Williams Lake which was discovered July 7th.
So far it has eaten up an estimated 467,462 hectares.
Many large fires burn in the Quesnel Williams Lake region.
Private firefighter Jared Smith is with a crew in the Quesnel area. He says a fire that ripped through was moving so quickly it bent the trees.
